Julian Edelman wisely letting suspension go without suit
By Cody Rivera
Julian Edelman has decided to not take further action against the NFL, and will get his four-game suspension out of the way.
The last time the New England Patriots had to deal with a four-game suspension, it turned into an enormous, annoying ordeal that lasted for over a miserable year and a half.
Tom Brady was issued a four-game suspension for the Deflategate drama before the 2015 season, successfully appealed and played the entire year, but then found himself suspended again when the NFL successfully appealed his appeal. Finally, Brady acquiesced and served the suspension for the first four games of the 2016 season, but by that point, everyone was beyond the point of complete and total exhaustion.
Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman finds himself in a similar situation, as he was issued a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance enhancing drug policy. Edelman appealed the suspension and lost, and rather than continue the drama by taking the NFL to court, he has decided to swallow his pride and serve the suspension during the first four games of the 2018 season.
Even though Edelman doesn’t believe he did anything wrong, he’s doing the right thing by just dropping the issue. It’s highly unlikely that he would have any luck in taking the league to court anyway, and this way, he can just get the suspension out of the way, and then the whole issue will be a thing of the past.
It’s frustrating, no doubt, seeing as how Edelman hasn’t played in an NFL game since Super Bowl LI, missing all of 2017 with a torn ACL. But it will be better for everybody to just deal with this problem and move on.
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Edelman will miss games against the Texans, Jaguars, Lions, and Dolphins, and even without their best receiver, the Pats will most likely still come out of those four games with a 3-1 record, maybe 2-2 at the worst. They’ll be just fine when Edelman finally rejoins them in Week 5 – just in time for a primetime matchup with the Indianapolis Colts.